Standing Redeemed
Key Passage: Romans 4:3
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter number four. We’re in Romans chapter number four in God’s Word this morning. For the Internet, the title would be standing redeemed. Standing redeemed would be the title of it this morning. We’re going to be in Romans chapter number four, and we’re in verse number three.
You know, we haven’t even gotten started yet. Romans chapter four, we’re trying to move on. I feel like we have a lot to cover. We’re going to start a little bit broad. We’re talking, preaching about forgiveness, God’s forgiveness. That’s just like 3,000 miles long. I can never describe God’s forgiveness; it’s amazing. We’re going to start a little broad, and we’re going to try to narrow it down a little bit as we go. So there’s a lot to cover to get there. Don’t lose me getting there, if you would. But we’re in Romans 4, and we’re going to start in verse number 3. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good deal, that’s great. Would you please stand as we read God’s word together this morning just to show respect? We try to do that. Romans 4 and verse number 3 is where we’re going to start this morning. The Bible there says, “For what saith the scripture? Abraham got baptized and it was counted to him for righteousness?” No.
It doesn’t even say he turned over a new leaf, got straightened out, or stopped his drinking, his curse, or whatever. Abraham believed. Amen. Isn’t that amazing? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Wonderful chapter here.
Look at verse number four. “Now to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” You’ve got to work for your salvation. You’re not saved by grace. But if you’re not saved by grace, you’re not truly saved. No, you don’t get saved by works; you get saved by believing. The best works you can produce are filthy rags in the sight of God. No, we’re saved by believing. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” What must I do to be saved? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Very clear in Scripture.
Let’s keep going, verse number five: “But to him that worketh not…” Wow, this fellow is not working. He’s not getting baptized, turning a new leaf. He’s not tithing. He’s not praying for someone. He’s not being all these good things to do, but he’s not working.
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” What about that? Not even working, this fellow here. And by the way, compare; this is a parallel scripture with James. “Faith that works is dead.” James is talking about in the sight of man. Show me, show me. You tell a brother that needs food and money, “Well, God bless you,” but you don’t do anything. It’s no good for him. Your faith that works is dead. This is not talking about before man; this is talking about for God over here, Romans 4, parallel scripture. See? So verse number five: “In him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
Verse number six: “Even as David also describeth…” I believe that’s Psalm 32, if I remember right. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth—that’s a big word, imputeth—righteousness without works, saying, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Amen. Wow, pretty amazing.
Years ago, we had just moved to Tennessee. Just started the church, and I had a check to deposit at the bank. I like to deposit those checks, you know. Before all this mobile deposit, whatnot, I went down to the local bank, just a couple blocks from our house at the time, our trailer we lived in at the time, and I deposited that check. We got money in the bank, you know. That’s a good thing to have right there. How many ever had more bills than money? Anybody there on that? Yeah. And it’s kind of nice when you got a little money in there. Boy, this is a good feeling. And I went to purchase something and checked my account. There’s no money in there. No money in there. Wait a second, man. I deposited it. I put some money in there; there’s money in that bank. And I checked it again. No money in there. I mean, there’s no money in there. Tell me what you’ve been doing, you know? Now, she hadn’t been buying anything. Where in the world did our money go? You know how it is. You start digging for that deposit slip.
I live in the generation of deposit slips. We got proof there. Man, I dug that thing out. I hadn’t thrown it away yet and found out about that. And why I went down to that bank—hey, man, I deposited money, and where is my money at? That’s my money I put in there. And they said, “Let me see that.” I said, “Don’t you steal my receipt. I got that day. I want to keep that thing.”
It’s about that time when they were making you put your thumbprints. I remember going to that same bank and saying, “Would you put your right thumbprint on there?” I said, “I don’t have a right thumb.” They said, “Oh, quit playing around with us.” They really did. And I’m telling you, I have a right thumb. I joked with it. “You got a thumb? Put your thumb on there.” And I said, “Nah, nah, nah.” That’s an honest truth.
So anyway, same bank. And boy, I was like, “Hey, I got this.” So they started checking it out. And those dirty thieves, can you believe it? They, by accident, had deposited my money into someone else’s account. Boy, I’m changing banks yesterday. No, they made it right. But technically they had taken my money and they had imputed it into another account. That’s when the Bible uses this word impute. That’s what it has to do with.
Now, what is this teaching us here in Romans chapter number four? The day you got saved. Can you think about it? You remember the day you called on Jesus Christ to be your Savior? Remember that day?
I was about an eight or nine-year-old boy. I was riding home from church one Sunday night or Wednesday, I don’t know what time it was. And I was supposed to get a whipping when I got home, so I knew I was about to face death.
No, I’m teasing about that part there. When I was, God was working in my heart. I was sitting in the back seat, my dad driving up there, and that was always a fast car driver. So I thought, I better get saved soon now. I got to quit my joking and get serious. But anyway, I was sitting in the back seat, and that’s just as a boy. That’s when I knew, I knew very clearly what I was doing, and I went to Jesus. I said, “Jesus, you said if I call upon you, you’ll save me, and I’m calling you right now.”
I remember that so very, very clearly. Here’s the bad part of it all. I always regret to say this, but the mile marker that I remember passing by, we were passing by the Anheuser-Busch plant. What a mile marker, you know, when you got saved. Praise the Lord, the Lord saves people from alcohol. But that’s what I got saved.
Now, when that happened, at that moment, God Almighty, in the bank of the universe, He took my sins out of my account, all my sins that I’d done. By the way, it’s not just your sins you commit before you’re saved; it’s the sins past, present, and future. See, how can that happen? Well, Jesus died on the cross 2,000 years ago anyway. All your sins were placed on him. The negligence was always laid on him, Isaiah says.
But at that moment, my sins that were in my account at that time—actually, the Lord saw up ahead of time. That’s where you get a little bit of predestination. It doesn’t mean he makes a decision for you; it means he just saw in his foreknowledge. We’re going to get into all that because we’re going to run out of time covering what we’re covered now. But anyway, my sins—boy, I was an eight-year-old boy. I had a lot of sins. I mean, I never did because I got an older brother about a year and a half, but I always wanted to beat him up. Never could do it; he was older than me. And I got a couple of licks on him. All my sins. I got to talk about my sins. All my sins that were in Paul Chisgar’s account were lifted out of my account, and God imputed those sins into Jesus’ account. Amen. That’s what it’s talking about.
Go back over there, if you will, those verses. Look back over there in verse number 7. If you’re there, verse number 7, saying, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered? Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Amen. God said, “No, I’m not going to put those sins on Paul’s account because I put those sins on Jesus’ account.” That’s what the Bible means over there. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” That’s what we’re talking about. He made him to be sin. My sins were put on him, who knew no sin.
Now, not only that—that’s one big thing about imputation. My sins were placed on Jesus’ account. That’s what he means when he says in 1 Peter 2:24, “who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” Not over that, but not all that. But then, in the bank account of the universe, Jesus’ righteousness—I mean, Jesus, he knew no sin. Never had a wrong thought, never said a bad word, never looked at the wrong thing, never had just a little envy against someone, never had any of that. All the righteousness of Jesus—he made the blind see, deceived the lame to walk. All the righteousness of Jesus, all those hours and hours he spent with the Father in prayer, all night long he prayed sometimes. The righteousness of Jesus was lifted out of Jesus’ account, if you will, and it was taken over here and it was placed on Paul Chisgar’s account. It’s amazing. All my sins, all your sins, if you’re a born-again Christian, the righteousness of Jesus was put on your account.
I didn’t finish that verse a while ago, 2 Corinthians 5:20: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” Watch this: “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Amen. So much happened when you were saved.
Now, here’s an amazing thing about it. In the bank account of the universe, if you’re a born-again Christian, if you’re saved, God will never place your sins on your account because Jesus took your sins. That’s what he means. We’ve already read it. Let’s read it again. That’s what he means, verse number six right there, Romans 4:6: “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without works.” He’s put righteousness on your account, and he’s not going to put sin on your account.
Oh, let’s see. Where are you at here? Oh, look in verse number eight right there. Verse number eight: “Blessed is the man whom the Lord will not impute sin.” See, he’s not going to put it on your account to make you count in heaven. Y’all want me out there this morning?
So that means, that means if Satan comes along and he says, “Well, you remember what all you’ve done,” you say, “No, no, wait a second, devil. No, wait a second. My sins were placed on Jesus. Jesus’ righteousness placed on me. I don’t have to pay for those sins.” And by the way, devil, you’re treading on dangerous territory because Jesus has paid for those sins. And Satan, if you want to talk about those sins, you take it up with Jesus Christ because it’s on his account. Jesus whipped the fire out of you a long time ago, devil. You better be real careful of that.
Somebody said, when the devil reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future. Amen. However, the Bible says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” No salvation is careful. He doesn’t say the north and the south because there is a North Pole—that’s where that guy with the red suit is supposed to live up there, you know, we won’t say that—but anyway, and there’s a South Pole. But there’s no East Pole. There’s no West Pole. In other words, you can go as far east as you want; you’ll never run to the end of that. You can go as far west as you want to, and you never face the West Pole anywhere. In other words, he’s saying, “Hey, as far as the east is from the west, you’ll go for infinity and you’ll never face those sins again because Jesus faced those sins for you.” Hey, gone, go! Yes, my sins are gone, friend. Buried in the deepest sea. By the way, they can’t really have a hard time finding out, you know, getting down the depths of the sea. That’s where my sins are buried. They’re gone. Jesus washed my sins away.
If Satan tries to guilt trip you, you say, “Wait a second, Satan. Hey, hey, you’re talking to the wrong individual. Those sins are not on my account; they’re on Jesus’ account.” Are you thankful for that this morning? Are you glad you’ll never face your sins again?
By the way, when you stand before Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ, if you’re a born-again Christian, that’s where you stand before him. You won’t be judged for your sins; it’ll be a judgment of your works, how many rewards you get or not. Amen. Well, we don’t have time to develop all that, but you look at 1 Corinthians 3 sometime and study that out. But let’s get to another thing. We’re not quite there to the main message, but we’re getting there.
Now, here’s the thing. As a child of God, if you’re saved, you’re his child, and you got saved, you became born into his family, adopted into his family. Your dad does deal with your sins as a dad. Now, in the universe, outside the bank account, you have Jesus’ righteousness on your account. Your sins are placed on Jesus’ account. But God, now that you’re a part of his family, God does deal with his children and their sin, all right? Not as a judge, not as a judge of the universe—though he is a judge of the universe—but as a dad. Okay?
First John, the whole book of First John is about the family of God. He uses this Greek term, tekna, and it has to do with somebody left the ball right there. Actually, that’s the cover for my microphone. It helps filter the hillbilly a little bit, amen, so you can understand what I’m saying. It hasn’t been working here lately, so it just fell off. We’ll get rid of that thing.
But he deals with your sin now as a dad. When our children did wrong—of course, Sarah never did anything wrong. Is that good preaching out there, Sarah? If her brother John did something wrong, we’ll just go there. If the kids did something wrong, we tried, especially as they got older. They didn’t get as many spankings, but when they got them, it was a big deal. We would say, “Hey, go to your bedroom.” Oh, if mom or dad says go to your bedroom, that’s never a good thing. I’m having flashbacks. I got PTSD of those days right there. But go to your bedroom, and maybe sometimes, me or Tammy, we had to calm down a little bit, get over the heat of the moment, and go back to your bedroom, and then we’re going to the bedroom in secret. Well, all the kids of the neighborhood, the relatives over the house, everybody’s over there. No, nobody knows about it.
And we go in secret and we say, “Hey, you’re a pretty good boy, a pretty good girl, but we’re not going to allow that line right there.” Or you were cheating out there in kickball. I know that never happened at your house—cheating—but it did at ours every once in a while. How many got in a fight over a board game over the holiday season already? Don’t raise your hand on that, but those things happen. But all of us, we deal with that in private. Now, they get a spanking sometimes, and then we go outside, and we try to keep everybody else from knowing about it.
Now, if you will, that’s how God deals with your sins as a born-again Christian. In the bank of the universe, you’re righteous before God, before the world, because Jesus’ righteousness is on your account. But your Heavenly Father, your dad, does deal with sin. Now, let me say this about that: Him dealing with your sin is not you paying for your sin.
Years ago, in the backyard, we had our HVAC, our air conditioning and heater unit on the big cement block back there in the back. And John, for allowing us into… Cowboys and Indians, and he had him a bow and arrow, you know, those days. He was going to be a cowboy and Indian, and he had this archery thing, you know. He was going to be good at it. And he set a cardboard box up, and we drew a bull’s-eye on that thing, right in the middle of that bull’s-eye. And he should pull him back, and he’s shooting that arrow for him. And he wasn’t quite aimed in real good. He didn’t have it zeroed in. And it went real high, and it just barely skimmed the top of that box. And it just kind of hit that box, and when it did, it just started flying up just a little bit. And it went right for that air conditioner. Right where the evaporator coil is. Yeah.
And it was a pretty good bow and arrow, too. One shot, and it hit that evaporator coil and that air conditioner. And all of a sudden, you see this white stuff starts spewing out. And Mark, someone who works on HVAC, you know about all that. And man, that’s Freon just flying out all over. You don’t know how to do that. But John didn’t pay for that. He couldn’t afford it; he was just a little boy. We paid for it.
Now, after we paid for it, and we got a new one in there and all that stuff, we had a talk. John, no more bows and arrows right around the air conditioner. Three miles down the street, the neighbors, you know, do it by the neighbors’ air conditioning, all right, John, not by ours. That’s what God is with you and I.
He didn’t pay for it. By the way, you never pay for your sin. The only payment for your sin—the wages of sin is death—that’s the second death, like a fire. You don’t pay for your sin, friend. But God, as a dad, does deal with your sin. The Bible word is chastening, not for payment for your sin. You’ll never pay for it, but for correction, so we don’t have another arrow stuck in the air conditioning again. You understand what I’m saying? That’s what God deals with his children. It’s not payment for your sin.
Let me say this: I think the worst chastening of it all—now, sometimes, I’ll put it that way—is God, first of all, the first stage of chastening is God says, “We’re not going to have fellowship.” That’s what it says in 1 John 1: “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.” You’re not going to be close to God. He’s still your Father; you still have the relationship—Heavenly Father, your son, your daughter—but the fellowship is broken.
And so the Bible said, now here’s the wonderful thing. It’s so encouraging to me when I discovered this years ago. He doesn’t say it has to be perfect to have fellowship with the world. He just says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sins.” Now here’s the wonderful thing. All I do is walk in the light. I got to be honest about my sin. I’ve got to be honest about the situation. Because if you’ve got to be perfect to walk with God, nobody’s going to be walking for God. Oh, that’s such a blessing when I discovered that. He that walketh in the light—can I encourage you to walk in the light?
Now, let me say this. So when I sin and my dad comes to me, my Heavenly Father, and he says, “No, Paul. Paul, Jesus paid for that in the bank account of the universe. You’ve got Jesus’ righteousness on your account. You’re saved. Satan can’t put anything on you. That’s done. Jesus—it’s done. It’s paid for, and it is finished.” But as your dad, God comes and says, “Hey, Paul, I need to talk to you about that bow and arrow.” And first of all, I’m walking in light; there’s no darkness at all. And we can’t be close. I’m going that direction, Paul; you’re going this way. We’re not going to be close, Paul. I love you. I like to be close to you, but I need to talk to you, Paul. I can’t—I can’t be close to you with all that going on in your life. And so we need to talk about this. If it keeps going, God, he will—he will take me back to the bedroom and deal with that.
But I want you to hear—here’s where we’re finally getting to the message. Somebody say, “Amen,” right there. I mean, we want to get out of there for sure, out of here.
I want just six things I want to talk to you about to remember when, if you’re saved, God comes to talk to you about your sins. Okay? Six things. You said preachers are only supposed to have three. Well, it’s a new day, new time. Amen. I’ve only got three main ones, but the last one’s got six underneath it. How about that? Preachers finagle all the time, don’t think. Anyway, let’s get these six things in here real quickly. Six things to remember as a child of God when your dad comes to you, your Heavenly Father, about your sins.
Number one, are you ready for number one? Would you look over in Psalm 86 real quickly? Psalm 86 and verse number five. Psalm 86 and verse number five. Six things to remember as a child of God when God deals with your sin. By the way, you’re going to have sin. Yes, just don’t think you’re going to be perfect because we’re not. Number one right here, Psalm 86. Would you look down in verse number five? Psalm 86 and verse number five. And I want you to see what God says. A wonderful verse right here. You’ll love it. It’s a wonderful verse.
The Bible there says, “But thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon thee.”
And God says, “Hey, Paul, go to the bedroom. I want to talk to you about some sins. Paul, you know, you haven’t been feeling my presence. I’m not being used. I’m about to spank you, Paul, if you don’t get right.” Hey, Paul, I’m good, and I’m ready to forgive. Watch this: “and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” That’s amazing. To all them that call upon thee.
D.L. Moody used to say, “No one leaves God empty-handed unless they go to God full of themselves.” That’s what it says over in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When Jesus, the Lord, Heavenly Father, comes to you and says, “Hey, let me talk to you. You got some sin there. We need to get—you got some pride there. You’ve been talking about people. You didn’t read your Bible for three weeks. You haven’t prayed. You haven’t done this. You haven’t witnessed to anybody.” When he comes to you about these sins in your life, remember he’s ready to forgive. Plenteous and mercy unto all them that call. Don’t get mad, don’t get bitter, don’t run from God. Don’t say, “Well, I’ll never measure up.” He’s ready to forgive all the time.
Let’s look at the second thing. Number one: six things. Number one, when God comes to you as your Heavenly Father, I want to talk about your sin, remember number one: he’s ready to forgive. Number two, here it is. I’ll just read some verses for you. Let me read for you Isaiah 1:18. This is what he said. He says, “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Did you notice that? He says, “Come. Let us reason.”
Now just think about that. Think about God. How many of you would like to play a chess game with God? Anybody out there? I’d lose playing a kindergarten kid. You know, I haven’t played in years, but I mean, can you imagine playing chess with God? And God’s like, “I don’t play you.” I mean, you won’t even stand a chance. But God’s not like that. He says, “Come now, let us reason together.” He says, “Joy, let me talk.” God says, “I know you’ve not been doing right.” He said, “God, I’ll reason with you, Joy.” Isn’t that amazing that God would reason with you and I? And by the way, it’s not when we’re doing everything right, but he says, “Come now, let us reason together,” and say, “Lord, though your sins be as scarlet.” When you and I are not right, God says, “Come on up, let’s talk about this thing.” That’s amazing. And I’m the one who left him. I’m the one in sin; I’m not doing right. And yet God, he comes and he says, “Come on over here, let’s talk about this thing.” That’s incredible.
And so when God comes to you as a Heavenly Father, and He wants to deal with you and your sin, number one, remember, he’s ready to forgive. Number two, your Father is calling you to him. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And God just—he’s just saying, “Come.” If you should keep going out in sin, God says, “Hey, my arm has still reached out to you. Come.”
Number three, we’re trying to move along quickly here. You can say amen to that. By the way, Brother Mark, can we get a little air just flowing here? Somebody’s just blowing a lot of hot air up front there, making it hot up there. I don’t know who’s doing that. But anyway, number three, six things to remember here.
Would you look over—I want you to see—look over in Isaiah 38, would you please? Isaiah 38 and verse number 17.
And that point before where he says “come,” and he wants to reason with you, I would tell you this, but it would take too long, so I won’t tell you about the prodigal son when he came home and how the father ran to him to meet him. That’s the only time in the Bible where God is pictured running, is when he’s running to see his son come home. That’s where God is with you when you’re sinning. I won’t talk to you about that; that’d take too long. We’re in Isaiah 38 right now, right? Y’all with me this morning? Y’all out there? I’m trying to keep you on board a little bit. We had too much turkey. I’m talking about me right here, but let’s keep going here.
Look at this. This is Isaiah 38. This is Hezekiah, actually, speaking here. Isaiah is the penman; Hezekiah is a king. And Hezekiah was about to die. And Isaiah is the prophet. Hezekiah, your days, your number. You’re about to step out of here. And Hezekiah prays. Isaiah goes to leave, and God says, “Isaiah, go back to Hezekiah, tell him I’m going to give him more life.” And Hezekiah says, “Hey, God’s been so good to me. Let me tell you what God did for me.” And these verses are the words Hezekiah is talking about how good God’s been to me. Look at this, Isaiah 38. Look at verse number 17. You’re right there, verse 17. Amen. Good deal.
Verse number 17. He says right there, “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption.” I love this part right here: “For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” Boy, I like that.
And God said, Hezekiah, yeah, you’ve been doing wrong. You haven’t been right. I’m about to take you out of here. But God says, “I heard your prayer. I’m going to forgive you. And I tell you what, your sins, I’m just taking your sins. I’m lining them up. I’m going to toss them high behind my back.” I love that. I mean, that’s what God’s saying right there. He said, “All your sins?” Yeah, Hezekiah, when you got proud as the king, I took that one. I tossed it behind my back. I thought you had it all together. You didn’t need me. You didn’t pray right, you haven’t been reading your Bible. You haven’t been witnessing to anybody. You haven’t been doing it right. I’m casting it all behind my back. Isn’t it amazing that God says, “Hey, Hezekiah, I’ve taken all your sins and I’ve cast them behind my back?” That’s what Hezekiah’s saying about God.
Friend, here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Remember, your Father will not bring your sins up again. When you come to him and say, “Father, I’m so sorry, you’re right. You’re ready to forgive? I’m asking forgiveness.” God says, “You know what? I’m forgiving that, and I won’t bring that up again.”
There’s a story about a family that had adopted a boy. Before he was adopted, he was very, very poor and didn’t have good clothes, and his shoes were just torn and dirty and outdated. They stunk and had holes and whatnot. And they adopted that boy. And they said, “Hey, let’s go buy him.” They got him some new shoes, and they had him dressed up nice. And the preacher came over for lunch Sunday afternoon. They used to do that back in the day.
And the preacher came over, and the boy acted up just a little bit. And mom and dad said, “Hey, hey, look at those shoes over there. That’s what you had on when we adopted you, and look what you got on now.” And the preacher bothered him. He said, “That’s mom and dad.” He’s trying to be wise. He said, “Mom and Dad, wait a second. I’m glad God doesn’t do that with us. When God adopts us, he throws away those old shoes. And you’ll never see those old shoes again when God forgives you.” He casts your sins behind his back. He says, “I will not remember your iniquity anymore.”
Somebody said, “How can God, that knows everything, always forget these sins?” And someone wisely said, “God always remembers to forget.” God doesn’t bring those old shoes up again. Friend, no, no, no. When God deals with you and you get this right between you and God, God’s not going to bring it up anymore. It’s done. Let me read for you another verse. You’re in Isaiah already. Look at Isaiah 45—excuse me, Isaiah 43.
Isaiah 43, look in verse number 25. He says, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Oh yeah. Oh yeah. God won’t bring it up again. God won’t bring it up again.
Now, let’s go to our next point. Number one, we said your Father is always ready to forgive. Number two, your Father is calling you to him even when you’ve sinned. Number three, your Father will not bring up your sin again. Number four, Satan, now listen—Satan, the world, and your flesh will bring up your sin again. In fact, Satan and your own flesh even will condemn you. Satan will guilt-trip you.
You know, sometimes, sometimes the kids are out there playing kickball in the yard when the neighbor kids are over there, and all that’s going on. There’s a fuss and fight, and all right, it’s one of our children’s problem. You know, they were being a bully, whatever. And we took them to the bedroom. All right, go to the bedroom. We went in there, and we took care of business. And they’re coming out of the bedroom, and they’re trying to wipe it all up. You know how it is. And they’re trying to get it all right away. And sometimes they go outside to play kickball again, and the other kids come on and say, “You got in trouble. You got in trouble.” And they start making it. That’s what the devil and the world and your flesh will do to you.
God doesn’t do that. God does—he throws away the old shoes. He said, “I cast your sins behind my back.” I’m not going to bring it up again. By the way, there’s a difference between conviction and guilt. Conviction is when God, the Holy Spirit, in the bedroom or before the bedroom, has convicted you that ain’t right right there. But once you’ve asked forgiveness, he says he’s faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse, and God has forgiven you, and then that keeps coming back on you—that’s not conviction; that’s guilt then. That’s not from God; that’s either from your own flesh, the world, or the devil. That’s where that’s from. God has dealt with that; it’s done, it’s over. You tell the devil, even your own flesh, “You take that up with Jesus because those sins are not on my account; they’re on Jesus’ account.” God won’t bring it up again, but the world will, and sometimes a worldly Christian will. God doesn’t. And God says, “No, no, no, we’ve dealt with that. Christ has paid for it in the universe’s bank account, and I’ve dealt with you as a dad on that, and it’s over. It’s done.”
Now, we’re nearing the end. Someone say, “Amen,” right there. Come on now. You can go home and have more turkey and all of a sudden here now. Get your nap in before church tonight when you have that turkey, though.
But look over in Psalm 51. Psalm 51. And this is a great passage of scripture where David, he had sinned and he wasn’t right with God. And we call it the great repentance Psalm, Psalm 51. And I want you to notice just one verse, really, for the truth that he betrays here. For years, I used to think, why does he say that? And it was wonderful when I learned about it. Psalm 51, look in verse number seven, would you please? Psalm 51, verse number seven, right there in God’s word.
He says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
I understand over there in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” I get that white as snow. But here, he says, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” When snow first falls, notice that when it first falls and you look out, it’s just white; it’s beautiful. Now, after a week of it, it’s not beautiful. But it’s just so white and pristine and beautiful. And I used to think, “Lord, why’d you put in there ‘whiter than snow’?” And I learned—I learned they say every single snowflake is actually formed around a little, little bitty particle, a little bit of a little, if you will, dirt particle. And that’s how that snowflake is formed. It’s formed around that little dirt particle. God knew that. He created it all. That’s why God in his word, he said, “Hey, when I clean you up, you’ll be whiter than snow.” Because Jesus’ righteousness is on your account, and Jesus has no sin. So you don’t have, you know, white snow formed around a dirt particle. You don’t have any dirt at all. You have Jesus’ righteousness on your account, and you can be whiter than snow.
Now, I want to change your ears—kind of the same thought, but just a touch here, and we’re going to be done. Remember in the New Testament, remember when Jesus went up to the Mount—we call it the Mount of Transfiguration. We typically think it’s Mount Tabor, the Bible scholars think it is. But it’s up on this mountain, Peter, James, and John. He’s up there praying. Remember what happens? He gets transfigured into his glorified body, right? You say, “How did these men know?” Let me read it for you. The Bible says, “And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” That word “glistering” is only used there in one other place in the Bible. I think it’s “glistering.” Ever once in a Bible will have someone come in and they’ve got these little bit… sparkly flakes all over their shoes or something. Someone recently said over here, and there were sparklies all over the seat right there in that seat. I asked Ms. Busho to clean it, and she did, but they’re just—you can’t get it all away. Brother Tim usually said, Brother Tim came to me and said, “Somebody playing a joke on me, like the glittery stuff all over, getting all over my clothes.”
And I think about that a little bit. Jesus became white and glistening. I was just like, “Whoa, man.” I mean, the fact of Peter, James, and John—Peter, you know, he always speaks up and says, “Whoa, what’s going on there?”
Let me remember if you another passage described it. “And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.” It was the whitest thing you ever saw in all your life. Any men that wear white shirts, you like, and I thought it was a white shirt until I compared it to something really white; that’s a dingy white right there. How about back in the day when men wore white socks? Wow, that’s dingy right there. That’s not white. These were like nothing you’ve never seen anything as white. But Jesus, he began to glistering in this white raiment.
Now, I say we have time to get into it, but you know when I go before God, maybe I’m going to him in prayer, and I’m going to say, “Hey, Lord, please forgive me. I’ve not been what I ought to be. You’re right, and you’re dealing with me as my Father. You’re right. You’re ready to forgive, and I’m asking forgiveness. I want to reason with you. I’m so sorry. I’m wrong.” But I want to plead the blood of Jesus. And Father, remember—you don’t have to remind him, but it’s good to remind him—Father, remember Jesus, he took my sins on his account, his righteousness on my account. And so, Father, and God says, “Hey, I want you to picture yourself like this. I want to picture you entering into God’s throne. I want you to picture it. And you come in there like that, and God looks down. We remember how sinful we are. We all are. But God looks down and he says, ‘Hey, you’ve got that white robe on. You’re whiter than the world’s never seen anything that white. You’re glistering. You’re welcome in my throne room. Would you come in, my son, my daughter, because you’re as white as white can be? You’re whiter than snow. You have the robe of Jesus on your account. You’re wearing his white robe.’”
And I want you to picture yourself when you come to the throne room of God humbly confessing your sin. God doesn’t chase you away. God doesn’t say, “I’m tired of you.” In your mind, you say, “God’s so sick of me; I fall all the time.” God says, “Hey, you look beautiful because you’re wearing that white and glistening robe.” And I want you to picture yourself when you come to the throne room, you come boldly because you come by the way of the cross, and you’re wearing that white robe. That’s why you pray—I hope it’s more than just a tag—but I hope you’re praying truly in the name of Jesus. And God says, “Come on in. You look white and glistering. You’re wearing the robe of Jesus, and you have the right to enter the throne room because of Jesus.”
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Standing Redeemed - Sunday AM 11262023